eHealth Africa (eHA) participated in the DHIS2 Experts Academy Conference in Oslo, Norway in August of 2017. eHA’s Les de Wit (Software Project Manager) and Jasper Timm (Lead Software Developer) supported the conference’s focus on sharing the most exciting innovations and uses of DHIS2.

District Health Information Software 2 (DHIS2) is an open source health information platform used in 60 countries. eHA and its partners use DHIS2 in key public health projects to enable Ministries of Health to maximize the health of their citizens. DHIS2 enables users to store and track health data, analyze it to understand trends and patterns and develop evidence-based execution strategies that will deliver impact for communities.

Pictured top left and right: Les de Wit and Jasper Timm. Photograph courtesy of Kjerstin Andreasen

The DHIS2 Experts Academy Conference was a gathering of 170 DHIS2 users, implementers, and developers from government, academia, and non-government organizations (NGOs). Jasper Timm and Les de Wit delivered a presentation entitled “Offline apps for disease surveillance from eHealth Africa in Sierra Leone [1, 2] and Liberia” which highlights eHA’s work in electronic integrated disease surveillance (eIDSR). To reduce the frequency of the errors, which are prevalent in paper-based reporting and during the process of transferring data from one platform to another, eHA in collaboration with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), and additional partners developed a mobile eIDSR application. This eIDSR app enables the entire health system to accurately record and share community-level health information from the district level to the national level.

During the event, the DHIS2 roadmap was discussed as well as workshops on new and upcoming platform features. There were also sessions on the software’s best practices and demos highlighting use cases of DHIS2 implementation from around the world. The opportunity to connect with colleagues integrating information and technology in health aligns directly with eHA’s respective vision and mission; to establish new standards in technology and provide underserved communities with tools to lead healthier lives. Join our team today and work on innovative tools and platforms that impact public health!